Generally, construction machine such as hydraulic shovels each include a plurality of actuators such as a swing motor and a boom cylinder, and a plurality of operating members for operating the actuators. Some of those construction machines are constructed such that operating signals from the operating members are inputted to a control unit which outputs operation commands to the actuators in accordance with the inputted operating signals.
Meanwhile, operability of construction machines has been poor in the past because correlations (operational patterns) between operating members and actuators operated upon manipulation of the operating members have not been standardized, and the correlations differ depending on manufacturers, the models and types of the construction machines, or the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) specifications. It has been therefore required to be able to change the operational patterns in match with operators. Such a change of the operational patterns has been hitherto performed by rearranging connections of lines between actuators and valves operated by the operating members. However, rearranging works of line connections have been problematic in that they are complicated and troublesome, and are poor in efficiency.
In consideration of the above problem, as disclosed in JP-B2-3-61811, there has been proposed such a system that several kinds of operational patterns are stored in a memory of a control unit beforehand, and the operator can select any desired one of the stored operational patterns.
The system disclosed in JP-B2-3-61811 however has the problem that because the desired one is selected from among the several kinds of operational patterns stored in the memory beforehand, the operator cannot select an operational pattern other than those stored in the memory, and therefore the system is not flexibly adaptable for various needs.
On the other hand, it is conceivable to store all the operational patterns in the memory. This solution would however give rise to the following problems. Assuming, for example, that two joy stick levers are used to control the extending and contracting operations of a boom cylinder, a stick cylinder and a bucket cylinder, and the leftward and rightward swing operations of a swing motor, total 40320 kinds of operational patterns at maximum must be stored and a large-capacity memory is required. In addition, the process of selecting the desired one from among such a large number of operational patterns is also complicated. Those problems are to be solved by the present invention.